Ridin' smoove

[Trudes]

Ride with one hand (right obv) and no brakes is what uncle_b used to teach. Be f**king careful though.

Exactly what I was going to say.
Teaches you to not only not use any braking, but also teaches you to weight the pegs, pick good lines through corners and think more about being very delicate with the use of the throttle.
Ride a fairly twisty piece of road again and again one handed, your speed will naturally increase and then after you've been up and down about 10 times, ride the same piece of road with both hands, you should shock yourself just how smooth and fast you can now ride!!! Awesome feeling!!

[BIGBOSSMAN]

I reckon it's all about rhythm. Riding smoothly as far as I'm concerned is all about knowing your limits as a rider, and the limits imposed on you by road conditions, traffic and other riders (including the usual idiots).
Always leave a good margin for error and teach yourself that the white dotted line (or yellow etc) is a brick wall.
Then concentrate on rhythm, choosing the right gear for each corner and flowing nicely into corners.
You'll know when you start riding smoothly, it's just like being a great dancer... like this guy!

[Jiminy]

Have a look at The Pace:

http://micapeak.com/info/thepace.html
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/fl...nick_ienatsch/

It's a bit of a re-post, but there can't be too much of The Pace me think.

I don't know anything about the track, but guess that being a more Paceful rider on the open road can't hurt your track skills.

[beyond]

Aim to take each and every corner perfectly:
Correct entry speed, maintain precise throttle control through the corner and then out of it, counter steer into the corner and out of it with smooth movements and no sudden flicking or jabbing of the bars.

Hold the perfect line throughout the entire corner and then do it again on the next and the next until you have it down to pat. Then if the need arises you will be able to pick up the pace and ride any road smoothly without pointing and shooting all over the place or getting out of sorts with yourself and the machine.

Most bike when cornering do not like sudden inputs so aim at smooth incremental inputs.

[The Pastor]

hmmm intresting points. I ride a cbr250, so small light bike I have. I always give it full throttle because, well it just doesnt have any power at all.

Ride with one hand and no brakes? sounds crazy enough to work.

[MSTRS:Me]

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...3&postcount=29
From another thread (about pillion carrying) but applies in here too.

[ManDownUnder]

+ ride each corner with the next in mind, so that you're set up for the smoovest line on every bend.

THAT'S the one! Ironically I do that too much now and "have trouble" riding at night (where the only corner I can see is the one right in front of me)

edit - I find when I'm in the groove there's a certain pendulous effect through the twisties... feels like the bike is always just swinging left and right underneath me. No "stop/start" swinging, just smooth.

[Grub]

From the Micheal Shumacher book by Christopher Hilton:

Ross Brawn: We asked Michael to back off in one race and he went quicker, so we radioed and said "We asked you to back off." Michael replied, "But I have backed off!" The reason he was actually going faster was that in backing off he suddenly had more momentum going on the car rather than pushing it and pulling it.

That kind of wraps up what most have been saying and there is the proof.

[madandy]

THAT'S the one! Ironically I do that too much now and "have trouble" riding at night (where the only corner I can see is the one right in front of me)

edit - I find when I'm in the groove there's a certain pendulous effect through the twisties... feels like the bike is always just swinging left and right underneath me. No "stop/start" swinging, just smooth.

Do you find the headlight(s) only illuminate the road dead ahead and not enough of the oncoming scenery ie; both sides of the road, giving some more clues about the oncoming road that's bent further left or right or simply that they dont shine far enough up the road?
Re the pendulum effect. That's the feeling when your countersteering is truly intuitive and you're just thinking the bike round the bends, your whole body working right and being one with the bike aye A wonderful feeling!

[Maki]

Of course, nothing is as important as USD forks. Apart from them being smooth is numero uno. By being smooth you will go fast with less drama and less wear and tear on your equipment than by riding like a clutz. The fastest riders and cagers make going fast look easy by being so smooth. You might want to check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-K5MTMKuPQ

I post this because Jackie S is the king of smooth.

[Maki]

You might want to check this out. He is smooth, and his "counter steering" is a work of art.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=A8-zbfdPfRg

[R6_kid:Me]

You want to try and ride your bike in one gear only... which is hard on a 250. So go to a tight road like Albany Heights road, aim to stay in 2nd or 3rd.

Dont worry so much about caining it on the straights, but rather only using the engine braking to slow you down for the corner (i.e get ready before hand).

Eventually you'll get better and better at this and will be able to speed it up, and therefore will probably need to use some brakes on the straight to get down to the right speed for the corner - but you want to be holding constant throttle on the corner until you reach the 'apex'.

I would expect that you will need to be at about 9-10k rpm entering the corner for it to be smooth and have enough power to pull you out when you start to accelerate for the straight (or to be at the right revs to engine brake for the next corner)


I'm not a professional and i dont proclaim to be a fast rider. But try it and see if it helps. The Californian Superbike School use a similar exercise for teaching 'smoothness' but they have done a lot more theory and other exercise leading up to it... they do a race track in fourth gear on a ZX6R.

[Ixion]

Was doing quite nicely through the Hunaus tonight, nice and gentle, decent pace, no brakes, and then some bastard in a truck comes round the corner on my side of the road. By the time I'd sorted that out , I'd completely lost the flow and after that it was all raggedy.

You can't do smooth I find if you get buggered up by something.

[Macstar]

I thought you stopped riding as it was too dangerous..............

Yeah I remember reading a thread of that description too.

[R6_kid:Me]

You can't do smooth I find if you get buggered up by something.

yep, those corners can be real upsetting!